I thought Paul Cayard made some really great calls on the water regarding wind shifts and potential strategies. Keep that guy!
And yes, Ken probably didn't get any usable intel for calling the races. He didn't even have the camera control so when he diagramed something the view would change! Gotta be tough to make stuff up on the fly like that.
Of course, Ken should never try to out-guess Potty-mouth Percy or the biker gang because every time he did the boats would do the opposite and make him look like a chump
The agonizing discussion of how VMG works was hard to listen to, but the graphics were very well done and should explain to the non-sailor how it works... The leader bar and separation distance were easy enough for my 11 year old to figure out. The football yardage lines kind of helped, as did the boat tracks.
The speed readings above each boat really helped bring out the speeds, since the camera angles and ease at which they sailed made it look like they were in for an afternoon cruise to the yacht club (until they got mugged with wave wash through the nets)
The heartrate things were distracting, except for the one guy whos HR kept showing 245 which probably should have killed him.
Despite the speed, technology and all-out craziness of the challenger series, it really did appear to boil down to good-old match racing skills:
-consistent boat handling
-picking shifts and pressure
-rules knowledge and use
There were some real nail-biter races, stupid mistakes, and questionable umpire calls. Just like every other sport. The TV production really has the potential to make this a spectator sport... albeit not an in-person, on-site spectator sport... So if sponsors can figure out a way to cash in on the eyeballs rather than butts in the stadium seats I think we'll see a better influx of money in the sport.
And once the AC is over, I really want to see some fleet racing with all the boats... Can you imagine 6 of these boats on the same course ripping at 40+? The tacticians would have a heart attack! The extreme 40 series was awesome just for that fact (the fleet sailing)... Put those bad boys on foils and watch the shenanigans
